Despite constant siege-mentality rhetoric, constantly invoked as a reason for police to be ever more aggressively controlling, ever more trigger-happy, ever more insulated from criticism in the name of officer safety, as a matter of fact, there has never been a safer time to be a police officer in the United States.

Shared Article from the Guardian

FBI data showing drop in police deaths undermines 'war on cops' …

Preliminary data show a 20% decrease in number of officers intentionally killed in the line of duty and the second-lowest total in the past 12 years

Jamiles Lartey @ theguardian.com

See also.

• GT 2011-02-01: Siege Mentality (cont’d)
• GT 2010-01-23: Siege Mentality

A. Abolish. From a recent post by Ra?@c3;ba;l Al-qaraz Ochoa on Facebook:

Ra?@c3;ba;l Al-qaraz Ochoa May 15 at 1:36pm

Houston, we have a few problems:
It’s ICE, not the raids.
It’s the police, not police brutality.
It’s border patrol, not apprehensions.
It’s violence, capitalism, borders, citizenship, nation-states, empire, not refugees, not migrants.

These Evils are not accidental. Whoever will take the pains to consider the Nature of Society, will find they result directly from its Constitution. For . . . Subordination, or in other Words, the Reciprocation of Tyranny, and Slavery, is requisite to support these Societies . . . . In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse! –Anonymous, A Vindication of Natural Society (1757).

This is considerably more lame than you led me to believe.

Shared Article from existentialcomics.com

Epicureanism: The Original Party School

A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

existentialcomics.com

Following up on my post from Friday, I find this reported earlier today from Agence France Press:

Shared Article from Agence France Presse

Maduro in crackdown under Venezuela emergency decree

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a sweeping crackdown Saturday under a new emergency decree, ordering the seizure of paralyzed factories,…

Valentina OROPEZA @ msn.com

Notice, in particular:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a sweeping crackdown Saturday under a new emergency decree, ordering the seizure of paralyzed factories, the arrest of their owners and military exercises to counter alleged foreign threats. . . . Addressing his supporters at a rally in central Caracas on Saturday, Maduro announced some of the actions to be taken under the decree, which has not yet been published.

. . . Maduro’s decree expanded an “economic emergency” declared in January to a full-blown state of emergency.

The extent of the decree was unclear, but political analysts said it could be used to limit the right to protest, authorize preventive arrests and allow police raids without a warrant.

Maduro said the measures, which initially apply for three months, will likely be extended through 2017.

–Valentina Oropeza, Maduro in crackdown under Venezuela emergency decree
Agence France Presse (15 May 2016)

This seems unlikely to end well.

See also.

• GT 2016-05-15: Bolivarian Process
• Elsewhere 2015-09-02: Venezuelan farmers ordered to hand over produce to state
• Elsewhere 2014-08-26: Venezuela “to fingerprint shoppers”
• GT 2014-02-26: Translation of "One comrade from Mérida sounds off: Oh I've got the desire" (Viento sin Fronteras, in EL LIBERTARIO)
• GT 2014-02-23: Translation of "From Chile, a pitch for the foundation of anarcho-Madurism" (Armando Vergueiro, from El Libertario)
• GT 2014-02-22: Translation of "One comrade sounds off: What's happening now in Venezuela?" (Victor Camacho, in El Libertario)
• GT 2014-02-22: Translation of "Quick Overview of the Situation in Venezuela for the Curious and Ill-informed" (Rafael Uzcategui, El Libertario)
• GT 2014-02-22: Translation of Message from CDH-UCAB: on torture and cruel and inhuman treatment of the detainees from 12-F (Centro de DDHH de la UCAB, reprinted in EL LIBERTARIO)
• GT 2014-02-21: Translation of Report from San Cristobal, Tachira (Anonymous, reprinted by El Libertario)
• GT 2014-02-21: Translation of Caracas, 15-F: Impressions from the street (Humberto Decarli, in El Libertario)
• GT 2013-03-11: Hugo Chávez in 4 questions (Rafael Uzcátegui, from Peri?@c3;b3;dico El Libertario)
• GT 2008-03-12: Que se vayan todos.